Tag: Paris

Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo wins Dawn Staley Award as top guard

Add yet another honor for the freshman phenom.

[autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag] began her collegiate career when Notre Dame faced South Carolina in Paris to open this past season. That meant she got to make her debut with Gamecocks coach Dawn Staley watching from the opposite sideline. She aced her first exam, leading all scorers with 31 points in an Irish loss. Now, Staley gets to honor her.

Hidalgo has been named the winner of this year’s Dawn Staley Award, given to the country’s top guard. She unseats Iowa’s Caitlin Clark, who had won it each of the previous three seasons. She is the second Irish player to win the award after [autotag]Skylar Diggins[/autotag], who was the first honoree in 2013.

Staley, whose Gamecocks are in the Final Four trying to complete a perfect season, said the following about Hidalgo:

“The Dawn Staley Award goes to the player who demonstrates exceptional skills, leadership, and performance at the guard position. Hannah Hidalgo’s court vision, passing ability, ball-handling and ability to create scoring opportunities for herself and her teammates combined with her relentless defense is unmatched. She is the embodiment of a two-way force on the basketball court and the essence of what the award represents. In a season where there are several deserving candidates Hannah has separated herself from the group.“

Hidalgo will receive her award during a virtual ceremony April 11, and it’s great to know that she still is collecting hardware even with the Irish’s season over. That trophy case is gonna be awfully crowded by the time she’s done in South Bend.

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Notre Dame earns No. 2 seed in NCAA Tournament, hosts Kent State first

Did you expect them to be seeded this high?

Not long ago, Notre Dame was seen as nothing more than a No. 5 seed in the NCAA Tournament. Some bracketologies had the Irish as low as a No. 6. Since then, the Irish have won eight straight games and the ACC Tournament championship. That was enough for the selection committee to make them the No. 2 seed in Albany Regional 1., the highest seed for any ACC team.

The result is the Irish will get to host the first two rounds of March Madness. They’ll begin their run to a national championship against No. 15 seed Kent State. The winner of that game will face the winner of the other first-round game in South Bend between Ole Miss and Marquette. The Irish’s only previous meeting with the Golden Flashes was a 66-41 victory in the first round of the 1996 WNIT.

While the seeding isn’t a complete surprise, it’s an improvement from most bracketologists’ final projections. One of, if not the only one that had the Irish as a No. 2 seed was College Sports Madness. ESPN, CBS Sports and Her Hoop Stats all projected the Irish as a No. 3. Needless to say, the Irish did everything they needed to be a tournament host and then some.

The one hiccup for the Irish is that they were seeded in the same bracket as South Carolina, the top overall seed and heavy favorite to win the national championship. Perhaps seeing the Gamecocks in the season opener in Paris will give them an advantage for what to expect. But they have a few other games to win before it gets to that point, and that’s why they play them.

So make your plans to be in South Bend this coming weekend. The Irish will need all the support they can get as they begin that national title run.

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Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo named Wooden Award finalist

The freshman is part of an elite class of players this season.

While far from the most prolific women’s basketball player this season, Notre Dame’s [autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag] still has been incredible. From the moment she stepped on the court in the season opener against South Carolina in Paris, there have been few games in which she hasn’t had a real impact. Now, she’s been rewarded by being named one of 15 finalists for the Wooden Award, which is given to the national player of the year.

Hidalgo entered Sunday’s ACC Tournament championship game averaging with the nation’s third-best scoring average at 23.4 points a game and as the nations steals leader at 4.7 a game. She has reached double figures scoring in every game, and the only time she didn’t record at least one steal was in the Irish’s win over UConn, the highlight of their NCAA Tournament resume.

While it will be tough to make a case for anyone other than Iowa’s Caitlin Clark to win this award, Hidalgo becoming a finalist as a freshman in an achievement on its own. Hopefully, this is only the first time she has this honor.

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Notre Dame to wear green for big home game vs. Virginia Tech

Will these work?

With Notre Dame three games back of Virginia Tech in the ACC, the hopes for repeating as ACC regular-season champions have been dashed. But an Irish victory over the red-hot Hokies would do wonders for their NCAA Tournament seeding, and they seem to recognize that. One day before their biggest game of the season, they announced they’ll be wearing green jerseys for the occasion at Purcell Pavilion:

The Hokies have won 10 straight and would clinch the outright ACC title by beating the Irish. So a lot will be on the line for both teams Thursday in South Bend.

We know the football team has brought out green jerseys on several occasions when a game has had high stakes, but it typically hasn’t ended well in those cases. The women’s basketball team wore green when it lost to top-ranked South Carolina during its season opener in Paris. Here’s hoping that’s not a sign that what’s true in football carries over to women’s basketball.

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Two more weekly honors for Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo

She’s unbelievable.

By the time this season is over, Notre Dame’s [autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag] will have more hardware than most players earn their entire careers. The freshman guard is the ACC Rookie of the Week for the ninth time, leaving her one short of the conference record for most in a season, and the Naismith Women’s College Player of the Week, undoubtedly fueled by her 34 points in the Irish’s upset road win over UConn.

What Hidalgo is doing this season defies all comprehension. From the moment she set foot in the court in the Irish’s season opener against top-ranked South Carolina in Paris, she’s barely had a bad game if at all. Until she was held without a steal against the Huskies, she had no fewer than three in every game before that. Only three players, including Iowa star Caitlin Clark, have higher scoring averages than her nationally. One only can imagine what she’ll do next.

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Three former Notre Dame players on U.S. team training camp roster

Keep a lookout for this year’s Olympic roster.

With the 2024 Olympics in Paris only months away, now is the time for USA Basketball to plan its teams. That includes a women’s 5-on-5 team that can keep the gold medal in the U.S. Sure, the U.S. has won nine of the past 10 golds, but one never can be too certain.

Out of the 18 players on the U.S. training camp roster, 12 will be selected for the upcoming Olympic qualifying tournament. It should be noted that the U.S. is participating in the tournament despite automatically qualifying for the Paris Olympics by virtue of taking the gold in the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Olympics. The next few weeks will serve as player evaluation more than anything else.

Three players on the roster will be familiar to Notre Dame fans because they all played for the Irish. While none of these names are surprises, it still is nice to see them have this opportunity. Here they are:

Notre Dame crushed by South Carolina in Paris to open season

Yep, the season officially is on.

Even with a healthy [autotag]Olivia Miles[/autotag], Notre Dame would have been an underdog against South Carolina in the season opener in Paris. After all, the Gamecocks have a better recent track record and a higher preseason ranking.

Whether Miles would have made a difference for the Irish on Monday will remain a mystery. All we know is they’re off to an 0-1 start after a 100-71 blowout loss to the Gamecocks, the first NCAA game ever to be played in the City of Lights.

Freshman phenom [autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag] scored 13 of her game-high 31 points in the first quarter, leading the Irish to a 25-24 lead after the first 10 minutes. The second quarter was a completely different story as the Gamecocks outscored the Irish, 24-8, and never looked back. In fact, the deficit only continued to balloon from there.

The Gamecocks held considerable advantages over the Irish in many statistical categories. This included bench points (30-10), points in the paint (62-18), fast-break points (24-6), blocks (11-3) and assists (28-10). In short, the Irish were completely outplayed, outworked and outhustled after the first quarter, and it was obvious to anyone watching.

Kamilla Cardoso did the most damage for the Gamecocks with an astonishing line of 20 points, 15 rebounds and four blocks. Freshman MiLaysia Fulwiley was equally lethal with 17 points, six assists, six steals and one of the smoothest moves you’ll ever see anywhere:

The move even got Magic Johnson’s attention:

Three other Gamecocks also reached double figures in scoring, and two of those players had at least six assists. It proved just how many complete players Dawn Staley is lucky to coach.

[autotag]Maddy Westbeld[/autotag] and [autotag]Sonia Citron[/autotag] were the two other Irish players to score in double figures with 12 points apiece.

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Niele Ivey, Sonia Citron, Kylee Watson speak during ACC Women’s Tipoff

Hear from the reigning ACC regular-season champs.

Notre Dame is hoping to repeat and even improve upon the success it had last year as the ACC regular-season champion. Reigning ACC Coach of the Year [autotag]Niele Ivey[/autotag] fielded questions about that and more during the ACC Women’s Tipoff on Oct. 24 in Charlotte, North Carolina. Joining her were returnees [autotag]Sonia Citron[/autotag] and [autotag]Kylee Watson[/autotag].

Here is some of what they had to say:

Kylee Watson, Sonia Citron will represent Notre Dame at ACC Media Day

Wonder what these two will say.

With the season creeping closer, ACC programs soon will head to Charlotte, North Carolina for the conference’s annual Media Day. Every team is represented by its coach and two of its players, making it no different than a typical postgame news conference. Obviously, Notre Dame coach [autotag]Niele Ivey[/autotag] will be in attendance. Meanwhile, the players will be represented by [autotag]Sonia Citron[/autotag] and [autotag]Kylee Watson[/autotag]:

Citron led the Irish in scoring last season (14.7 points a game) by a slim margin over [autotag]Olivia Miles[/autotag] (14.3 points a game), who was injured in the regular-season finale and didn’t play any of the remaining games. Citron also averaged the most minutes for the Irish at 33.5. For all of that and more, she made the All-ACC First Team.

Watson was the Irish’s field-goal percentage leader in 2022-23 at 60.1%. She also had career highs in most major statistical categories in her first season at Notre Dame after two years with Oregon.

The Irish are ranked 10th in the AP preseason poll and open against South Carolina on Nov. 6 in Paris.

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Notre Dame Thanksgiving weekend game at Ball State officially Nov. 24

Adjust your calendar.

If you’re planning your Thanksgiving weekend around Notre Dame women’s basketball, you’ll want to read this. The program’s official schedule initially read that the road game against Ball State would be played Nov. 25. That schedule now has been updated to say the game is Nov. 24. Yes, that means the game is being played on Black Friday.

This game will be the back end of a home-and-home. This is only the second time the Irish are headed to Muncie. They lost, 79-61, in their only other game there in 1981. The Irish and Cardinals ended up playing each other three times in less than a year and then didn’t face off again until last season. when the Irish earned a 95-60 victory at Purcell Pavilion.

The Irish’s season opener has been highly anticipated in that it will be against South Carolina on Nov. 6 in Paris. Talk about starting the season off with a fellow women’s basketball blue blood. You won’t want to miss that.

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